AntiSec Hackers Claim Responsibility for Police Website Attacks

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The hackers who defaced police department websites in Boston and
Alabama did so in support of the Occupy Boston movement, and to
protest the Boston Police for what they perceive as unprovoked
violence against demonstrators. There's another, decidedly less
righteous reason behind their attacks, however: they were bored.

The hack, according to
Wired, replaced the websites of the Boston Police Patrolmen's
Association (BPPA) the Baldwin County Sheriff's office in Alabama
and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) with
an anti-police rap video. Claiming responsibility for the attacks
is the AntiSec hacking movement, an offshoot of the Anonymous
hacking group. In the past, AntiSec has made its social agenda
felt by launching online campaigns against controversial
political figures such as Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and
U.S. law enforcement agencies such as the Arizona Department of
Public Safety, in retaliation for Arizona's controversial
immigration laws.

The hackers dumped the names and passwords of at least 2,000
members of the BPPA, the union that represents Boston police
officers. From the Alabama Sheriff's office, the hackers exposed
names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. The
hackers also made public 600 MB of data stolen from the IACP,
including names and addresses.

The security firm
Sophos obtained a recording of a call made to one of the
hacked law enforcement agencies, in which the hacker, speaking
with a British accent, tells the officer he performed the hack
because he "got a bit bored."

(Sophos' senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley, writes that
the call was placed to the BPPA, but it's possible, given the
officer's accent, that Cluley was mistaken and the recording is
from the Alabama Sheriff's office.)

The hacker taunts the officer, laughing at him when the officer
says he's going to trace the call, obtain a warrant and
put him in jail. "I'm going to get on a plane in the next few
minutes and head that way, start looking for you somewhere," the
officer tells the caller, to which the hacker replies, "Bring it
on."